The Rays pitching staff was just a bit better than the Giants'.
The Tampa Bay Rays (66-45) manage to hold on with their bullpen to beat the visiting San Francisco Giants (49-61) by a final of 4-3.
The Rays' pen only allowed one hit to Giants in the 8th after they took over for Rays starter Roberto Hernandez with two outs in the 5th. The one hit allowed by the pen in the 8th was a double by Gi...

A few days ago I posted my predictions regarding the NL pennant race, giving an edge to the Washington Nationals winning it all. You can find the article here: (http://www.prosportsblogging.com/2012/08/24/from-the-stretch-who-makes-the-playoffs-and-who-wins-it-all-nl/). Today I list my favorites to make the playoffs in the American League while also giving each team their chances of winning the...

Tonight's game between the Orioles and Rays was a painful game to watch that ended in a 10-1 score in favor of the Rays. It became ugly right from the first pitch of the game from the O's Miguel Gonzalez to the Rays Desmond Jennings. Jennings hit a lead off home run on the first pitch out of Gonzalez' hand. The game did not get any better for the O's on offense nor on defense.
Gonzalez left ear...

The Texas Rangers go into the 2011 MLB Playoffs as favorites this year. Last year the Rangers flew under the radar as underdogs, this time around anything less than a World Series Title will not be good enough in Arlington.
The Texas/Tampa ALDS rematch series will have some bite to it. Tampa is still upset over last year's loss to Texas and will be out for revenge. Meanwhile, the Range...

If you are not an Orioles fan and you check the up-to-date wins list in the major leagues, you’ve probably never heard of the Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Jake Arrieta, who is currently tied with 10 other pitchers on the list with nine wins in only his second season in the majors.
Jake Arrieta was originally drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 26th round of the 2005 amateur draft, b...

Since coming back from a left oblique strain that landed him on the DL, Longoria has hit .310/.429/.655 in 9 May games. Tampa Bay has gone 7-2 since his return.
2011 has been a story of resiliency for the Tampa Bay Rays thus far. They opened the season losing 6 straight games and dropping their first three series (BAL, LAA, CHW). To compound the defeats, they also lost their star third baseman...

What Happened
Even though strong pitching from Jo-Jo Reyes, Brandon Morrow and Kyle Drabek kept the club in the series and even earned them a win, the Jays (14-17) simply couldn’t generate enough offence against a tough Rays’ pitching staff. With Jose Bautista still out and the Blue Jays boasting precious little in offensive depth, Toronto offered up a hot Adam Lind and not much else agains...

Take a good look at these standings….
AL East
Baltimore 3-0
New York 2-1
Toronto 2-1
Boston 0-3
Tampa Bay 0-3
It didn’t take Long for the Orioles to give the AL a taste of what baseball will look like in Baltimore this year. They swept the 2010 division champions, in Tampa, and allowed only three runs in the process.
This first series was all about pitching. The Orioles got outstanding s...

So its finally time. October baseball, one game to decide who moves and who advances. Is there anything else better in sports than one game to decides who advances in a playoff series? But tonight means a little more to both teams. The Tampa Bay Rays had been the favorite to win this ALDS easily much like the Yankees did theirs, to set up a potential last team standing series against e...

One foul tip. That's it. Momentum gone from having the bases loaded with one out and up one run to the count going 2-2 and leading to Cliff Lee striking out Carlos Pena and Rocco Baldelli to end the first inning. Lee goes on cruise control for seven innings (7.0 IP, 5 hits, 1 ER and 10K's) and leaves with a four run lead and poof that's the turning point of the game. Quite amazing to ...

Tampa Bay (96-66) vs Texas (90-72)
RANGERS ROSTER
RAYS ROSTER
2010 NLDS- San Francisco vs Atlanta
2010 NLDS- Philadelphia vs Cincinnati
2010 ALDS- NY Yankees vs Minnesota
Rays Thoughts
The 2008 AL Champs are back in the postseason after a one year hiatus. When you look at the 08 team and this year’s team, not much has changed except for one glaring thing; David Price has arrived. S...